Problem of plenty or tricky dilemma for Spain?

Given their pedigree, Spain may well end up among the top three
teams this summer but it is highly unlikely that they would now do it
in the Barcelona way.

| TNN | Updated: Apr 11, 2014, 00:30 IST

Whichever side you stood on watching Atletico Madrid bundle out Barcelona in the Champions League, you couldn't have lived the rush of conflicting feelings Vicente del Bosque - Spain's National coach and hence fence-sitter-in-chief - possibly encountered those ninety minutes and more.
It is famously believed that Del Bosque has at least three top players for each position in his squad. But it is possible that Atletico's robust rise this season, coupled with Barcelona's confused approach, leaves him with a dilemma as he gives his World Cup plans the final touches.

Given their pedigree, Spain may well end up among the world's top three teams this summer - probably even successfully defend the title they won in South Africa - but it is highly unlikely that they would now do it in the Barcelona way.

Honed to perfection by an obsessive Pep Guardiola, the Barcelona way was the winning template which Del Bosque borrowed for Spain. It helped greatly that there were more or less the same men at his disposal. But with the masters themselves currently in throes of uncertainty over how to play their football, the Spain manager must be frantically looking for a new way to play as Brazil looms.

How does Del Bosque tweak old, familiar methods to accommodate the rush and harry methods employed to great effect by Atletico? Does he ignore it completely? If so, then it would be at the risk of overlooking new, hungry and genuine match-winners like the supremely confident 22-year-old Koke (or Jorge Resurreccion), whose goal knocked out Barcelona, the battling Juanfran, a resurgent David Villa and the terribly exciting Diego Costa, whose conversion to Spain Brazil is still cut up about.

Despite the enviable problem of plenty, what will bother the national coach most is whether his players still retain the mind space and wavelengths to align and re-adapt to differing ational team methods at the end of an exhausting club season. So, as a result, will Del Bosque continue to remain faithful to old, successful methods, and in doing so, ironically be the only man in Spain true to the tiki-taka?

Hidden in all the din that has accompanied Atletico's rise this season under the typically-gritty ways preached by manager Diego Simeone, is the loss of Barcelona's identity as masters of the possession game. It is not so much an impending end to a cycle but an enforced transformation of a mindset.

Under new manager Tata Martino, Barcelona seem to have adopted a long-ball game that seems alien to them. Missing is their incisive football that they were they were both feared and famous for, and it has been replaced by an approach beset by hesitancy and lack of ideas. In a team of short men, the long ball will show up inadequacies. They still play the 4-3-3, but not with the inventiveness of past seasons.

Barcelona's resulting dourness - only momentarily lifted by Neymar and Andres Iniesta's brilliance - has displeased the purists. Once permanent fixtures in Champions League semifinals - Barcelona last exited this early seven seasons ago - Barca's loss has not helped that elsewhere, Guardiola has upped his basic model a few notches to devastating effect at Bayern Munich.

Xavi Hernandez, slower of foot but still sharp of vision, seems relegated to a deeper position with marginal effectiveness. It may be to provide cover to a squad run thin by injuries, but the replacement up ahead, the much-vaunted Fabregas, has failed to raise his game.

But as Iniesta continues to carve his own niche for Barca and Spain, the heirs apparent to Xavi - Koke and Manchester City's David Silva - wait impatiently in the wings. Will their increasing influence in their respective clubs this season force Del Bosque ring in deep-meaning changes for Spain at the World Cup? Or will Tata Martino's grinding methods at Barcelona provide the latest template no one knows what to do about?

more from times of india Sports

All Comments ()+^ Back to Top

Characters Remaining: 3000

Continue without login

or

Login from existing account

FacebookGoogleEmail

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive. Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.